Musings by Melissa

Today is the day that we celebrate Jesus Christ’s rising from the dead.  My Savior is not dead.  He lives!  Death could not keep Him in the grave!  Oh, what a blessed thought!

Carl sang in church this morning while playing his guitar.  He sang, “Victory in Jesus.”  What a blessing to hear young adults who love their Savior and aren’t afraid to tell the world of their love for Him!  (Nervous, yes.  Afraid, no!)

After church and dinner with my parents, I spent the afternoon geocaching and hiking with my Aunt Jan.  Let me tell you, if you’re looking for some fast weight loss tips, you should take up geocaching and do only the difficult caches.  They can be far and few between, but they are by far, the best and the most memorable caches to do.  Who can forget hiking the more strenuous trails in Acadia National Park to find a cache and enjoy the magnificent view?  Who can forget needing ropes to maneuver up and down steep terrain up north?  Who can forget long bike rides or kayak trips in quest of a cache?  Or all the hiking… up and down huge hills and valleys?  No doubt about it, getting out and enjoying the fresh air, getting some great exercise, and finding a cache is a delightful way to spend an Easter afternoon.

Alicia is under the weather.  We’ve all been healthy all winter so far, but a couple days ago I baked chocolate chip cookies, and I knew something was amiss when she said she didn’t want one!  That’s definitely not like my daughter.  She’s been running a fever – 100.5.  She’s tired.  She’s not interested in food.  And her eyes don’t have that sparkle that they normally have. 

It’s no secret that I love my kids, and I hate it when they’re sick.  Although I do love the extra time snuggling and making them comfortable.  I guess that’s one of the perks of being a mom.  At least until I come down with it, and find myself up too many nights in a row, unable to sleep, with bags under my eyes, and reaching for the wrinkle eye creams!  Ah, but it will still be worth it.

Alicia, honey, I hope you’re feeling better in the morning.  I love you!

Wayne and I wracked our brains this year trying to come up with a good gift for the kids.  Normally we make things for them.  In years past we have given them such things as pencil boxes, quilts, shelves, afghans, night stands, etc.  But this year we couldn’t come up with anything.

Until we had a major ah-ha moment, and the EFA was born!

It was first called Tuesday Time, because we had settled on Tuesdays.  But since that sounded boring, our gift was quickly dubbed EFA … Eefsting Family Adventures.

Every Tuesday (but occassionally it will fall on other days of the week), we will do something “adventurous” as a family.  The first Tuesday after Christmas we surprised the kids by driving to “The Outdoor Discovery Center” in Holland and renting snowshoes!  They loved it, and we all got some great exercise.  Spending quality time with the family and getting fresh air along with our exercise is much better than the best diet pills on the market! 

The next Tuesday we rented a raquetball court at the nearby University.  It was a bit crowded with five of us running around hitting four different balls, but no one needed to visit the ER, so it was a success.  (Although next time we will rent two courts!)

This past week we did three different things.  Sometimes that’s just the way it goes!  All of them were free, and all of them were one-time things.  So, carpe diem we did!  Saturday found us walking the streets of Holland again, but this time we were watching an ice sculpting contest.  Watching these artists transform huge blocks of ice into hummingbirds, butterflies, horses, and pineapples was a huge learning experience for us all. 

Monday morning found us braving the elements to drive way across town to the small burg of Alto.  (And no, I’ve never geocached there!  Amazing!)  Buddy Davis was at one of the small local churches giving a presentation on dinosaurs.  As usual, he was a delight and a challenge to listen to!

And Tuesday?!?  Well, due to bad weather in December, Zeeland’s Community Chorus’ rendition of Handel’s “Messiah” had been rescheduled for Tuesday night.  So, after supper, we headed back to Holland to listen to “The Messiah.”  Beautiful!  Justin got a bit bored, but he did a lot better than I would have at his age!

Hmmm… Now I’m left wondering what we’re going to do this week…  I’m open to any suggestions.  But I’ve always got a couple things in reserve that are up my sleeve.  So, no need to fear.  At this point I’m just waiting to see what the weather will be like.  So, stay tuned for more of our upcoming EFAs!

Well, Wayne has started on my Christmas present.  We have a closet in our basement that’s really the only indoor storage closet we have (other than the normal bedroom closets and a coat closet upstairs).   This closet is rather long, but the only way to access it is through the end.  That’s just not convienent at all.  I either can’t reach half the closet or I have to keep half of the closet empty so that I can reach the back half.  Either way, quite a bit of space isn’t usable. 

So, Wayne has knocked out one of the longer walls of this closet.  He had to rerun some of the plumbing, and now he’s framing it in for sliding doors.  We’ll add some shelves and then we’ll have a lot more storage space.  I’m really looking forward to organizing that space and using it to its full potential.

The hardest part of the project for Wayne was the plumbing.  He’s never mastered the art of soldering.  (So, if you’re good at it and willing to give him a lesson or two, please let me know!)  We started a bathroom project that we haven’t finished yet, mainly because one of the pipes has a small leak.  Once that leak gets fixed, then we can go shopping for shower doors, Kohler faucets for the shower and the sink, and a cabinet for the sink.

But for today, I’m going to enjoy the progress that’s being made on my new closet!  I love my hubby!

What a fun week we’ve had!  I can’t say that we’ve gotten all of our schoolwork done for the week, but the kids are plugging away at it, and the vast majority of it is done.

1~ So what did we do that was so fun?!?  Well, last weekend was Wayne’s four-day weekend.  So, he had Monday and Tuesday off (which meant we did, too!)  Monday was a bit windy, so we decided to drive out to Grand Haven in the afternoon and see the waves.  We parked next to the channel, and watched them crash in the Grand River for a while, and then we headed over to the next parking lot and watched them crash into the pier.  At one point I rolled my window down to talk to my parents (who we happened to bump into while we were there), and the inside of the van instantly had a nice layer of sand over the whole thing.  Needless to say, the window went back up immediately.  We enjoyed watching some of the surfers trying to catch a wave, and we enjoyed our time together as a family watching the mighty power of the wind and remembering that our God is in control of the wind…  imagining what it would have been like for Peter to try to walk on the waves.  What a mighty God we serve!

2~ Tuesday was another day off.  Since our membership to the Van Andel Museum expired at the end of September, and since the museum recieved a new exhibit that we hadn’t yet seen, we spent the afternoon there.  We fell in love with the Leonardo daVince exhibit.  What a genius!  All the exhibits were hands-on, and they were all very self-explanatory.  The museum was pretty empty.  Maybe the school groups haven’t had time to organize field trips.  Whatever the reason, we enjoyed snooping around in the quiet and interacting with the museum staff.

3~ Thursday evening found us out at the barn where a good friend boards her horse.  Since Alicia is a huge horse-lover, spending time with horses is always a huge treat.  We were able to ride two horses, and the weather was beautiful, so we were able to ride them outside.  Thanks to Wayne and Joanne for a beautiful evening!

4~ Carl made a good friend at summer camp this year, and lo and behold, Elliot’s mom is someone I knew while growing up.  So, Friday we got the kids together to play.  Heidi and I were able to catch up on the last 20 or so years, and the kids had a great time playing together.

5~ We also did the annual “fall garage clean-up.”  For some reason the garage always gets messy over the summer, and so, come this time of year, we need to clean it out.  I helped the kids get started, and they surprised me by finishing it all by themselves.  It looks great!  And now there’s plenty of room to bring in a wheelbarrow full of wood for the stove.   (A good thing since it’s rainy and cool today.)

6~ We started cleaning up the garden.  Out with the plants.  We’re going to put the sunflower heads on the back porch.  Maybe some of the birds will enjoy them this fall/winter.  Considering I wasn’t able to keep up with the garden for the majority of the summer, we were able to get quite a few tomatoes and cucumbers out of it.  The green peppers, radishes, and carrots were all devoured before they ever had a chance to grow.  And we didn’t even attempt beans.  Maybe next year we’ll build a fence!  ~smile~

7~ School is going well.  The kidlets seem to have figured out that when they are done with their list of daily work, that they have the rest of the day to do with as they wish.  I’m not sure why it’s taken them sooo many years to figure this out, but at least they seem to “get it” now!

That’s about it from this side of the blogging fence.  Hope all is well with you and yours!

Today is the day my hubby leaves for his Canadian fishing trip.  So, I spent the day baking six loaves of my homemade bread for him to take along.  Here’s what it looks like cooling on my counter.  The picture doesn’t do it justice.  The smell is mouth-watering.

I had another follow-up appointment today, and I got good news!  I can flex my ankle.  I can start putting weight on it.  (In two weeks I should be walking without crutches!  Although it will be 3-4 months before I’m up to taking any longer walks.  ~sigh~ )  But the big news is … I can drive!!!

So, I’m still sitting in “the chair” most of the time yet.  But I’m busy flexing my ankle.  I should be able to figure out how to walk with one crutch.  This will enable me to get a glass of water and bring it back to my chair.

Ah… life is SLOWLY returning to normal!

I haven’t updated my blog in awhile.  I’ve been too busy getting things ready for my ankle surgery.  I’ve got extra meals in the freezer, cabinets a bit more organized than normal, and that type of thing.  But now that I’m flat on my back fo a few days, we’ll see how long the organized cabinets last!  ~smile~

Well, the podiatrist took one look at my x-rays and knew immediately what my problem was.  When I fell over a year ago, I chipped my ankle bone.

Yesterday morning, he removed the chip, which turned out to be as big as his thumbnail!, and then he reattached the ligaments to the remaining ankle bone.  Surgery itself went well, although yesterday afternoon I was in tremendous pain due to the wrap being too tight to accomodate the swelling.  After removing the wrap, the pain was immediately gone.  Praise the Lord!

So, now I’m laying on the couch until the swelling stops.  ~sigh~  I’m not a good person for being immobile.  It’s a good thing I have some pain because I’m more content to be still when I’m hurting.

I have a follow-up appointment with the podiatrist on Thursday.  Hopefully by then the swelling will be over, as well as most of the pain.

The meds are making me loopy.  I hate that feeling.  I find myself just drifting in and out of sleep.  Zzzzz….

But in the meantime, I can’t do a whole lot.  It’s hard to do anything while laying on my back!  Even reading is difficult.  Surfing the web is relatively easy though, thanks to my laptop!  So, I think I’ll spend part of the next few days researching travel deals.  After six weeks of laying around, I’ll be more than ready for a nice vacation!  Of course, I don’t think I’ll really need to relax on that vacation!  ~smile~

But until then…  Zzzzzzzz…

My oldest son has always wanted to learn how to fly.  He’s now twelve, and he’s looking into various flight schools.  However, they are a tad out of our budget.  He’s got quite a bit in savings already.  In fact, he’s got about half of what he’ll need.  But that still leaves him short.

So, he decided to start a newsletter to raise money toward flight school.  He’s put a lot of time and effort into it, and I’m rather proud of him.  He sent out the first edition today.  He’s hoping that since he’s never asked anyone to buy a candy bar, wrapping paper, or submarine sandwich from him, that people will be willing to exchange $12 for a year’s subscription to his newsletter.

He’s learned a lot by putting this first edition together.  He’s learned about page layout, design, color, size and font of typeface, grammar, punctuation, etc.  (Personally, it’s an excellent way for him to do “writing” without even thinking about it.  But that’s just this ol’ homeschooling mom’s 2-cents!)

Anyway, if you’re interested in seeing his first edition, let me know, and I’ll get you a copy.

Alicia's Curtain

I spent a good part of yesterday and a few minutes today working on a curtain for Alicia’s room.  She’s beyond butterflies and ladybugs.  She’s into horses!  For Christmas I made her a denium quilt for her bed.  The inside is polarfleece horse material.  She loves it! 

So, I knew I needed to replace those little girl curtains with something a bit more grown up.  I saw this pattern in a book, and I fell in love with it.  (And it looked to be within my skill range!  A HUGE plus!)  Of course, the curtains in the book were much more formal with special cording, but with a little improvising, we’ve got curtains that an eight year old girl LOVES!  (And I got a big thing off my to-do list!  ~grin~)

Love them boots!!!